Duff family lived in OP

Wednesday, December 1st, 2004 2:31 PM

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Faced with a slam dunk murder rap, mobster Nick Calabrese is currently chirping to federal agents about as many as 18 unsolved mob murders, some possibly going back as far as the 1970s. So it's understandable that people in Oak Park anticipate seeing the names of such notorious former Oak Parkers as Sam Giancana and Anthony Spilotro resurface in the newspapers soon.

But several other lesser known former Oak Parkers have seen their names in print recently. The Duff family, who of late have frequently had the term "politically connected" or "mobbed up" precede their names, lived on the 200 block of North Harvey Avenue in the 1960s and '70s. The site of their old two-story frame home is now a tot playground, across from the rear of Beye School.

The youngest Duff brother, James, 46, now lives Burr Ridge. He's currently under federal indictment and facing trial this February for, among other things, fraud in the use of a false minority-owned firm, Windy City Maintenance, which garnered some $100 million in City of Chicago contracts over a 10-year period.

His mother, Patricia Green Duff, of Chicago and Florida, is also indicted in that case.

John Duff, Sr., a former vice president of the Distillery, Wine and Allied Workers International Union, pled guilty to two counts of an indictment alleging he received over $76,000 in unauthorized payments from an affiliated union in the early '80s. He served a 6-month work release sentence in 1982.

The oldest Duff brother, Jack, 52, was permanently banned from the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union in 2000 for, among other things, being paid over $172,000 over several years for a no-show job with the HEREIU, as well as associating with numerous known members of organized crime, including Rocco Infelice and members of the Luchese and Gambino crime families of New York.

Patrick Duff, 50, a longtime union official, has not been charged with any crimes.